Note: this is just copied directly from my website as I don't reckon many people read that, so any weird references etc is due to that:
I’ve worked part time as a janitor-ish guy at a museum for 7 years now and just had my last day there since I’m moving to attend a new college. While working that job I carried a Skeletool CX everywhere because it had the pliers with wire cutters and a bit driver – the two thigns I needed most on that job. Since joining multitool.org I’ve been reading a lot about various tools and realizing how many there actually are, so I’ve been going back and forth to find the most suitable tool for everyday carry (EDC) now that I’m just a student. The final choice fell on the Victorinox Climber, as it has tools that are very useful in everyday use instead of more heavy duty tools like pliers and bit drivers.
As you might have seen in other articles on this site the Climber has gotten the wooden treatment for scales, as I don’t much care for tweezers and toothpicks. I’ve also added a nail nick to the hook, bought a small flat head screwdriver designed to fit in the corkscrew and yesterday I found you could fit a needle and thread behind the hook. Today I got a massive package from home containing some mail that arrived after I moved and among that was a bunch of cheap sheaths from DealExtreme that I hoped would fit 91mm Victorinox knives. They did, and they are very nice. Good quality with some nice details like velcro that is sown under the edge of the sheath so it doesn’t hang lose, decent velcro , flexible walls and a metal ring added to the belt loop on the back. I recommend everyone with a 91mm Victorinox knife to get one just to try it out – for $1.50 shipped you can’t go wrong.
As for the knife itself, Victorinox basically make new models by adding or removing tools from another model. A Climber is a Spartan with an added hook and scissors. Add pliers and you have a Deluxe Climber, or add a wood saw to make a Huntsman. Switch out the corkscrew for a Phillips head screwdriver and you have a Super Tinker, and so on. Check out the link to SAK Wiki at the bottom to see more related models and find any and all info you’ll ever need about Swiss Army Knives.
Used to carry a Spartan, so obviously my upgrade added scissors and a hook. The hook is decent; besides storing a needle and thread I’ve used it to tighten paracord creations several times. The scissors though is what I really wanted, and they are very nice. The leatherman Wave in comparison has very puny scissors, and the same can be said for many other tools including smaller Victorinox models. The 91mm scissors are big enough to really be useful in everyday situations, and I use the scissors a lot more than I use any other tool on the knife. That is kind of ironic since I used not see the point of scissors on a multitool because I was under the wrongful impression that they were all flimsy and useless after having seen some cheap-ass multitools with scissors many years ago and never ran across any since. Really though the things you normally do as a student is more likely to require scissors than a knife, so having a pair that is decent and good to use is very nice. It’s a good idea to get a couple of spare springs right off the bat though, so you don’t have to look for a place that has them when you need to put in a new one.
Then there are the blades…. I really wish I could remove the large blade, and might attempt such a mod with a second Climber I have on the way from eBay, used. The knife laws in Norway are retarded and basically statae that you can only wear a knife in public if you “mean no harm”, in other words use it for hobbies, work and so on. IN practice this means that it’s up to whoever finds you wearing a knife to decide if you’re a bad guy or a good guy – which is utterly retarded. Either way I normally use the smaller blade and that one is a lot less threatening since you basically can’t stab people as much as poke them with it (well you could, but you get my drift).
The bottle opener and can opener are mostly used as prybars on my tools, though since moving I’ve actually opened cans with this knife – it’s not pretty. If I end up modding a Climber to my own liking I’ll probably keep the bottle opener and the small blade and leave the large blade and can opener out, to make it one layer smaller. The awl would also go in that case, as I don’t really use it much at all. The hook is useful though, and the corkscrew stores the very useful small screwdriver, though I might actually leave out the corkscrew as well in order to have full scales on both sides without the corkscrew cutout. Time will tell if I ever do that mod.
Overall I think the Climber is one of those time proven Swiss Army Knives. At three layers thick it’s on the edge of what I would call small, which is why I didn’t add $5 and get a Huntsman with a wood saw when I got it. Extra layers add both bulk and weight, which is why a 2 layer mod interests me. I might just get the Compact though since it’s exactly what I’m describing just with a large blade instead of a small blade. Frankly I think Victorinox should make scales with flashlights in them for the 91mm models and not just the 58mm models as that would have been nice to have on a Climber, though my lanyard light also works well. All in all I really like this knife and if you modify and accessorize it properly you’ll have a very trustworthy companion.
I did three videos (part 1-3 of the same video) that contain much of the same as the written review just in my bad spoken Engrish, which you can watch below the pictures.
Links:
DealExtreme $1.50 sheathRotoKid’s store; paracord, replacement parts and wood scalesSAK Wiki entry for the Climber
Donations
Community Links
